While Christian Conservatives are unable to grasp that life on earth stretches back farther than 5,000 years, the world’s greatest thinkers have joined together to answer the question: Is there life outside of Earth?

Together, the elite group have issued an inspirational letter to us all, in which they state:

“A mature civilization, like a mature individual, must ask itself this question. Is humanity defined by its divisions, its problems, its passing needs and trends? Or do we have a shared face, turned outward to the Universe?”

“There has never been a better moment for a large-scale international effort to find life in the Universe. As a civilization, we owe it to ourselves to commit time, resources, and passion to this quest.”

“Somewhere in the cosmos, perhaps, intelligent life may be watching these lights of ours, aware of what they mean.

“Or do our lights wander a lifeless cosmos — unseen beacons, announcing that here, on one rock, the Universe discovered its existence. Either way, there is no bigger question. It’s time to commit to finding the answer — to search for life beyond Earth.

“We are alive. We are intelligent. We must know.”

Milner’s cash injection will go to researchers at Berkeley-based SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence), who have been diligently attempting to answer these questions with scant resources since the 80s. According to the Wall Street Journal, with the billionaire’s funding the team could gather more data from outer space in a single day than earlier projects achieved in a whole year. The billion stars nearest Earth will be surveyed, while researchers listen out for signals from the Milky Way’s 100 nearest galaxies.

“’Our search will be 100 times better than any previous search for intelligent life in the universe,’ Geoff Marcy, chair of SET, told the WSJ.”

While the news has been greeted with excitement and more than a little humor by progressives across the political and business world — it exposes the limitations of the Christian Right, who are not even able to accept the science regarding the history and origins of life on earth.

The program serves as a timely reminder of the two strikingly different futures facing America as a result of the impending 2016 election. She can be a progressive, compassionate, world-leading, scientific nation — or relegate herself to a third world theocracy gazing at the Bible while the rest of the world looks to the stars. Let’s make sure America picks the future, not the past, in 2016.

Author: Kerry-AnneKerry-anne Mendoza is an independent journalist.
She is well know for investigative reports on politics, economics and social policy and is author of Amazon best-seller "Austerity: The Demolition of the Welfare State and the Rise of the Zombie Economy".
She has been traveling to and reporting from the Middle East for 13 years, most recently reporting from Gaza during Operation Protective Edge, and making the film 'Palestine: What Hope Peace?'
After a career as a management consultant holding senior positions in Banking, Health and Local Government - she gave it all up to live in a tent at Occupy London and has been writing ever since. She is based in the UK.